Chapter 6
There were many things that Evert didn't like. Waking up early to tend the garden. How quickly gossip got around in a village with less than one hundred people in it. His brother, about half of the time. Now though, he disliked the fact that he was alone, the most. Sure, he still had his parents, and a few friends in the village, but his best friend had left him to take up a job in the capital, and although he wouldn't admit it out loud, he was very lonely.
The fact that she'd left and gone off with Stahl was particularly annoying. When a letter from her showed up that night, delivered by a well dressed castle service saying that the message was incredibly urgent and important, Evert did his best to swallow his annoyance for once. It must be important he thought—according to the date on the letter she had penned it that day.
Again, it wasn't something he would admit, but deep down he'd been concerned for Stahl when he'd ran off to join the army, and was still worried with so little information coming in from his brother. Freya was no exception, he couldn't help but wonder if she'd be able to handle life all off alone in the capital, running an apothecary by herself. It wasn't a question of ability but rather her training— Evert was the one who'd been given the instruction in running a business since he'd be taking over, not Freya.
The anxiety that had formed a pit in his stomach didn't go away when he read her letter. Though, the bit where she mentioned the lack of care when it came to manners made him raise an eyebrow in disbelief.
Freya hadn't asked for him to come and visit her, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that he needed to go. Call it issues with abandonment, call it stubbornness, call it anything you wanted, in Evert's mind Freya had left all too suddenly, and he was not okay with it in the slightest.
Evert tapped his foot on the earth floor of the cottage, before folding up the letter and placing it in his pocket. With his resolution steeled, he packed up a sack with clothes and a little bit of food, said farewell to his parents and offered the vague excuse that Freya 'needed him to help get the apothecary started in the first few weeks' and trotted to the town's stables to rent a horse. He'd have to ride through the night, but he'd get there the next morning without any problem.
Things were going well for Freya. Yesterday's outing with Stahl had been both enlightening and fun, and she couldn't deny the warmth in her chest that came whenever she thought of him. It was a new development, and not one that she even thought of all that important quite yet. Unlike the list of patients and medicines that she was working through.
Freya was about two hours into another meeting with Lissa, and they were finally done covering all of the patients that were in the castle. The list of potions that she'd have to make every week seemed staggering, though she'd managed to find a schedule in the notes of her predecessor, and that seemed like it would be a good place to start. "Are you alright with all of this Freya? I know it's a lot to take in."
The smile that came to her lips at Lissa's concern was bright and genuine. This was going to be difficult, Freya wouldn't deny that in the least, but it was a challenge that she was incredibly happy to take on. "I'm alright! I'm actually excited to start—this is a dream come true to tell you the truth. I'm glad I get the chance to show I'm worth my salt, you know?"
Their meeting wrapped up, Freya walked towards her tower with a bright smile on her face, silently planning out the rest of her day and which potions she'd start with first.
At the same time, Evert had finally made his way to the castle stables, also smiling brightly as he dismounted his horse, not letting the exhaustion of having ridden through the night dampen his mood. After a bit of wandering around, he'd somehow found himself in the castle's kitchens. He paused for a moment, tempted to find himself some food but thought better of it and flagged down one of the workers who didn't appear all too busy, "Excuse me ma'am! I'm looking for Freya Bauer, the new apothecary, would you happen to know where she might be?"
"The apothecary? The Apothecary's Tower is in the servant's quarter's, if you leave the kitchens through the gardens and follow the pathway, you'll be able to find it real easy sweetheart." The old woman paused for a moment, squinting at the young man before her, "You look an awful lot like one of the knights here! Do you know a Sir Kerner by any chance?"
Evert let out a chuckle, running a hand through his already messy hair, it was so strange to hear his brother referred to so formally, "He's actually my big brother! I came to visit him and Miss Bauer, we all grew up together." He gave the cook a small bow, using the sort of courtly manners that his mother would have been happy to see. Even if Freya said that the people here didn't care about them. "Thank you so much for your help ma'am, please have a good day." With that he exited the kitchens and headed towards the tower, as the cook mentioned to one of the other workers that Sir Kerner's brother was quite the polite young man.
When he made it to the tower, Evert took off his boots and placed them neatly next to the door. Freya's new lodgings seemed quite nice, albeit small. As tempted as he was to simply climb into her bed and fall asleep, he had a feeling that it wouldn't be the most proper thing to do since Freya didn't appear to be here at the moment, and especially since he was filthy after riding for so long. Instead, he opted to grab the last half of a loaf of bread and eat his first meal of the day, all the while taking stock of his surroundings.
The first thing Freya noticed when she walked in was that there were a pair of boots at the door that were not hers. The next was that a weary looking Evert was chewing at a stale piece of bread while he looked around her chambers. "Evert? What in the world are you doing here?"
The bright smile was back on his face at the sight of his closest friend, "Freya! You seemed so worried in your letter, I came to visit and make sure you were alright." Not quite the truth, but Evert would be sticking to that story for the moment. It seemed more dignified than admitting he'd been lonely without her or Stahl, and had used her letter as an excuse to come up.
"I'm fine—I sent that yesterday morning, you must have been riding all night." It didn't take much to put two and two together, no person would ride all through the night for such a trivial reason. "Why are you really here? What's wrong?"
Evert finished the last of the bread, and shrugged, "Nothing's wrong—it's like I said, you seemed upset in your letter, so I came over." Quick to change the subject, Evert shook his hair loose from its ponytail and shrugged off his cloak. "Would you happen to know where I can get a bath? I'm disgusting from riding and want to get cleaned off before sleeping."
Just like his brother, Freya thought, so quick to change the subject. "I'll call for the servant's to bring the water for a bath." She frowned as she looked around the layout of her living quarters, there weren't any walls to separate or give privacy, with the exception of the small water closet. With a small click of her tongue, Freya set her sights on her tiny kitchen tucked away in the corner, "I'll have them set up a privacy screen in the kitchen as well… where are you going to stay while you're here?"
"I thought I'd stay with you." The look on Freya's face seemed less than pleased at this idea, and as she walked away with a roll of her eyes to ask a servant to bring in some hot water, he looked around the tiny chambers, knowing full and well that his mother would have a fit if she found out that they shared the space. It was one thing to share a room when they lived under the watchful eyes of his parents, but another to be totally alone and share a room. Eyeing the staircase as Freya walked back in, "I can sleep upstairs, if that's better. Is that a spare room?"
"It's my workroom." Having him on a different floor would at least be a little more proper, though it still wasn't ideal. "Can't you just stay with Stahl? I know he'd be glad to see you."
The grimace on Evert's face gave her enough of an answer, though she didn't like it. Evert fiddled with a stray lock of his hair, finding himself not ready to face his brother. Deep down Evert loved his brother, but he knew full and well that whenever he was around Stahl he reverted back to the child he'd been when his brother had left, "If you're really uncomfortable with me staying with you I'll bunk with Stahl, but truthfully I'd rather not."
"Fine—" Freya let out a small huff, she wasn't going to force him to after all, and for about the past decade they'd lived together anyways. "But, you're going to be helping me with my work while you're here, got it?"
Grinning as wide as he could, Evert nodded emphatically "Of course! It'll be like it was when we were training together!" he paused for a beat, thinking for a bit before continuing, "Well, Dad won't be here to tell us we're doing it all wrong, but it'll be close enough."
Freya stifled a laugh as the servants came in with the large tin washbin that served as the tub, and rushed to help set it down in the kitchen and fill it up with the warm water they were bringing in with buckets. With Evert's help everything got set up quickly, and once the privacy screen was set up to block off the small kitchen with Evert behind it, Freya worked on tidying the workroom's floor so she could set up a cot for Evert.
Once her work was done, and the cot had been set up she trudged back downstairs, "So how are you planning to handle everything with Stahl?" the groan from behind the privacy screen was a frustrated one, the kind Evert only gave her when she was being particularly stubborn about getting some sort of information. "I'm letting you live with me for as long as it takes for you to work out whatever this—" Freya's hand moved in a sharp, annoyed gesture that she knew Evert wouldn't be able to see, "Is. You can at least tell me what your plan is."
"I don't have a plan. It's not my job to have a plan." Evert scowled as hard as he could at the privacy screen, and didn't try to hide the bitterness in his voice. "He's the one who left, he's the one who ought to be coming up with a plan."
Well, at least he was being reasonable about all of this, Freya thought with a roll of her eyes. "I don't mean like making up with him. I mean how you're going to behave when he's around. If you're going to be picking a fight with him the whole time you're here—" her voice raised sharply to drown out the protest coming from the other side of the screen, " I want to know about it! I know you're mad, you've got a right to be mad, but I don't want to get caught in the middle of a screaming match without any warning."
There was a slosh of water accompanied by a softly muttered string of curse words as Evert stepped out of the washbin. "Throw me my towel and my clothes."
Freya wondered briefly if changing topics was some sort of family trait that had been passed down to the two brothers, before wadding up Evert's clothes in a towel and hurling it over the privacy screen. Judging by the metal clang that greeted her ears, Evert's clothes were currently atop her tea kettle. "That wasn't even close to where I am."
"What do you expect me to do? Pass it to you?" Freya let out a sigh and perched herself atop an end table in her tiny den, facing the privacy screen with a frown. "Do you think you'll be alright around him?"
The scowl on Evert's face was becoming more and more pronounced as time passed, he didn't like talking about this, and didn't appreciate Freya's insistence towards the topic. Though he couldn't say he was surprised it was happening. "I'll be alright. Don't worry 'bout me." There was a beat of silence before he continued, in a much softer voice, "I don't want to spend too much time with him though, if you don't mind."
Freya wasn't surprised, though she was disappointed. "Well, I start work officially in two days, so you don't have to worry about that." She was half tempted to bring up the fact that Stahl wanted to reconcile with his brother, but Freya she had a feeling that stepping in between the two would do more damage than good. Her frown was quite large by the time Evert came out from behind the privacy screen, though Evert didn't look any happier than she did at that point. Finding a change of topic seemed almost impossible, and the argument between brothers that Freya knew would be coming any day now seemed to loom over the room with an oppressive silence she didn't know how to break.
Thankfully, like his brother, Evert Kerner was quite skilled when it came to avoiding uncomfortable topics of conversation. He simply forced a smile on his face, tied his wet hair up into a ponytail, and shoved an inordinate amount of enthusiasm into his voice as he spoke, "So! Where should we start with our work?"
